Baloo
Baloo is the deuteragonist of Disney's 1967 animated feature film, The Jungle Book. He is a fun-loving, easygoing, and good-natured sloth bear who becomes the best friend of a "man-cub" named Mowgli. Personality Baloo is easily characterized by his laid back, gentle nature. Often speaking with a soft, smooth tone, the sloth bear is known for his ideals of remaining relaxed as often as possible, and preventing the pressures and responsibilities of life holding one down, as vocalized through his song, "The Bare Necessities". Bagheera, the wise Panther, describes him as a "jungle bum"; a seemingly useless member of animal society, only focused on lounging, snacking, scratching his back, and other minimal activities labeled as lazy pastimes. Though lazy, stubborn, and foreign to true responsibility, Baloo has a large heart, often taking his ideals (which are seen to have successfully led him to a happy lifestyle) and sharing it with others, including Mowgli, the man-cub, in hopes of spreading the happiness he's been fortunate enough to experience. Though Baloo enjoys relaxation and tranquility, he is also a socialite—an unabashed lover of parties, jazz music, and jungle beats. Through the sound of bouncy rhythms alone, Baloo can be seduced into joining a party, going as far as to becoming the center of attention, as seen during the climax of "I Wanna Be Like You". In The Jungle Book 2, Baloo has a reputation of being the "life of the party" and is extremely popular with the jungle's social gatherings because of this. However, in spite of his loyalty to his "bare necessities", Baloo is not above abandoning morals and disregarding the safety of others for himself, or what he believes in, as evidenced by his decision to ultimately join Bagheera in escorting Mowgli to the Man Village, where he belonged, despite the bond the two had formed by that time, showing the sloth bear is capable of taking responsibility should the circumstances reach a valid level of importance. Trivia * Walt Disney was used as a reference for the dance moves seen when Baloo is introduced in The Jungle Book. * Baloo's full name was given as Baloo Bear or Baloo von Bruinwald XIII in TaleSpin. * In the 1994 film, Baloo is played by an American black bear. * In the 2016 film, Bagheera acknowledges that Baloo is a sloth bear. However, his statement is inaccurate as Baloo rather resembles a Himalayan brown bear than a sloth bear, the Himalayan brown bear is a species of bear that also lives in Northern India but it is not native to the Seoni area, where the story takes place. * Even though Mowgli is the true protagonist, Baloo and the other animals are promoted more than the man cub. * Baloo actually means "bear" in Hindi, so in a way, Baloo is named after his own species. * Baloo bears a striking resemblance to Little John from Disney's Robin Hood, who were both voiced by Phil Harris, who also voiced Thomas O'Malley in The Aristocats. * Baloo and Little John perform the same dance moves with King Louie in The Jungle Book and with Lady Kluck in Robin Hood, complete with recycled animation. ** Interestingly, Baloo was originally designed with brown fur, as shown in one production cel and original theatrical release posters of the film. * Although Baloo's species mainly eats plants, they are known to be aggressive, and also the bear species that has the greatest tendency to kill people. Ironically, it is an interesting comparison with a real sloth bear and the fun-loving, completely harmless Baloo. * Interestingly, in the original books by Rudyard Kipling, Baloo is the polar opposite of his cartoon counterpart. In the Disney version, Baloo is laid-backed, wacky, free-spirited, and is rarely serious. While in the original books, Baloo is incredibly strict, humorless, stiff, and very knowledgeable. In fact, he shares more traits with Disney's Bagheera than Disney's Baloo. * When Bagheera was saying his speech about Baloo, he wished his mother heard it, hinting that she is deceased. * Aside from King Louie, Baloo is the only animal character to walk on two legs in the film. * There is a bear in the "Say It with a Slap" sequence from Bongo that highly resembles Baloo. This is most likely because Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were animators for that scene, and there is a possibility that the bear was a prototype of Baloo. * Bill Murray, who voices Baloo in the 2016 film, is the younger brother of Brian Doyle-Murray, who also voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story. In short, both Murray brothers had voiced Baloo in two different live-action Jungle Book projects. * Baloo is visibly afraid of Shere Khan; as real tigers eat sloth bears, this is not surprising. Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Animals Category:Anthropomorphic characters Category:Black Hair Category:Grey Hair Category:The Jungle Book characters Category:Bears Category:Deutaragonists Category:Disney characters Category:Indian